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Canada

Roadside gunman had small arsenal

Nadia Moharib, QMI Agency

Saturday, December 17, 2011
10:10:53 EST PM

Undated, unsourced photo of Derek Jensen (L) and Tabitha Stepple (R). Stepple was killed in a multiple shooting near Claresholm, AB Dec. 15, 2011 along with two others in a vehicle. Jensen is the alleged gunmen. (COURTESY CTV CALGARY)

Mounties say a man who took his own life on an Alberta roadside after killing three others and wounding a fourth had two loaded guns in his nearby vehicle.

Shortly after the roadside ambush, police seized a firearm and ammunition from the Lethbridge, Alta., home Derek Jensen shared with ex-girlfriend, Tabitha Stepple -- who was among those slain.

Autopsies confirmed the 21-year-old woman, along with Mitchell Maclean, 20, and 22-year-old Tanner Craswell, died of gunshot wounds.

Jensen, the man identified as the killer, took his own life after the deadly rampage.

Saturday Mounties detailed some of the deadly sequence of events which culminated early Thursday with the triple-murder/suicide on Hwy. 2 just north of Claresholm, Alta., about 100 km south of Calgary.

Shortly before 1 a.m., elite baseball players, Maclean, and Craswell left their Lethbridge home to go to the Calgary airport.

They had planned to catch a flight home to Prince Edward Island for Christmas.

Shayna Conway was driving them in Stepple's vehicle.

Jensen, who police referred to as Stepple's former common-law, was also driving north on Hwy. 2 "apparently looking" for her.

He found the group at a 7-11 in Claresholm, but police said there was no confrontation at that time.

"Obviously, he went looking for them and found them," RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said.

Minutes after leaving the store and not far away, RCMP said Jensen rammed the rear of the vehicle carrying the friends en route to Calgary.

Police said they are unaware if the group knew who struck them.

Conway, the lone survivor, got out of the vehicle only to be confronted by Jensen, who shot her numerous times with a semi-automatic Heckler & Koch 9mm handgun, perhaps, police said, because she was in the way of his intended target.

He then set his sights on the three people in the vehicle, opening fire and murdering Craswell and Stepple where they sat.

Suffering gunshot wounds, Maclean managed to get out and was found by police in a nearby ditch clinging to life.

He was taken to a nearby hospital and then put in a STARS air ambulance destined for Foothills Hospital in Calgary but died before arriving.

Jensen killed himself at the scene, his body found on the road.

A police search of his vehicle revealed a loaded 12-gauge shotgun and loaded Winchester rifle.

All firearms seized were registered.

The cache of weapons "certainly speaks to the intent of the person," but there are unanswered questions about exactly how it all unfolded and why, Webb said.

He could not say whether Jensen's intended target was Stepple -- the others losing their lives in his bid to get to her -- or whether he was intoxicated at the time.

Investigators are certain his break-up with Stepple prompted the deadly attack.

With no violence between the pair documented previously with police, Webb said it was likely a horrible tragedy that no one could have predicted or prevented.

"Our best estimation is there is a jilted lover-type situation, he could not handle the termination of the relationship," he said.

"This was an exceptionally horrible tragedy. No amount or review or explanation after-the-fact will ever change what happened."